


What Happened This Time?

by ChandlerPrussiaDixon, Idk_anymore



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: AU, Emotional, Infrequent Updates, M/M, Roddy is in a dark place, because im so mean to him, start as children but will become highschoolers.... eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2016-02-05
Packaged: 2018-04-29 07:43:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5120465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChandlerPrussiaDixon/pseuds/ChandlerPrussiaDixon, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idk_anymore/pseuds/Idk_anymore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Roderich's Mom dies, he moves to Germany with his stepfather, Claudius, and finds a friend in his cousin-in-law.</p>
<p>I will add more tags and may have to change the rating as I go. This is a pairing fic if I can ever seem to get that far.  I am so mean to poor Roddy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first fanfiction I've ever put on the internet. It will probably be MONTHS in between updates for this. I have very little time and though I have many plans for this story I sometimes get frustrated with trying to put them on paper (or in this case type them into my computer). But I really wanted to post this because I put a lot of effort into this. But I would really love feed back and hope that you can be patient with me.

     Gilbert peeks around the corner, into the main hall, to see his grandfather speaking with his uncle. He hasn’t seen his uncle since he moved to Austria two years ago to marry an austrian woman named Maria. At his uncle’s leg is a miserable looking boy around his age, with dark hair and glasses. The boy seems to be staring through the floor like it’s made of glass. Gil looks back up at his grandfather trying to make out what he is saying.  
     “You have my condolences for the death of Maria, Claudius. No one is ever prepared for such a tragic accident. I’m guessing this is her son, that you spoke of?” Grandfather gestures to the boy, who doesn’t look up.  
     “Yes, this is Roderich, Maria’s son from her previous marriage. He is six. I’m … all he has at this point.” Grandfather looks over the boy, Roderich, with a sympathetic look.  
     “Both of you are welcome to stay as long as you need. You're probably tired from your trip, I’ll take you to the guest room, though we only have one. We used to have more guest rooms, but when Frederick moved back in, his sons have claimed them...” His voice disappears as he leads them down the hall. ‘Poor kid...’

* * *

 

     “You remember Gilbert and Ludwig, don’t you? Gilbert is seven now, and Ludwig is four…” Gilbert stopped listening to the adults ramble on. It was the same every time. ‘It’s been so long...’ ‘They’ve gotten so big, how old are they now?...’ He wouldn’t mind it if they actual addressed who they were talking about. Adults always talked ABOUT the children in the room instead of TO them. Gilbert directs his attention to the food on the plate in front of him. Everyone is sitting at the large, ten seated, dinner table. Grandfather is at the head with Frederick to the left. Yolande, Gil’s and Ludwig’s mother, is after Frederick. After her is Gilbert and beside him is Ludwig. On the other side of Grandfather is Claudius, then Roderich.  
     Gilbert looks up at Roderick, his curiosity getting the better of him, to see him pushing his food around the plate. ‘He’s really pale, maybe he hasn’t eaten since his mother died?’ Gilbert takes in the rest of the boys features, noticing little things like his violet eyes, a stray hair sticking up out from the rest, and a little spot near his mouth. ‘Is that a mole or a birthmark?’ But the things that pique his attention are the obvious signs of sleep deprevation, and the look in his eyes. Not even a flicker of emotion is showing like a ghost has taken the place of a usually expressive child. ‘He looks like he hasn’t slept in days and that he’s sick of the world.’  
     “Roderich, please at least try to eat something.” Claudius is looking down at the boy with a worried expression. Roderich doesn’t look up, and continues to push the food around the plate. Claudius just returns to the conversation, having fought this battle and lost many times already.

* * *

 

     “Gil, could Roderich sleep in your room with you?” After dinner, Grandfather suggested it was time for anyone under ten be put to bed. I just got done helping Luddy brush his teeth, when Claudius stopped me in the hall. “For some reason he refuses to sleep in the room with me, and the two of you are close in age, so could you keep an eye on him for me tonight?” Claudius made a slightly pained face while speaking, but caught himself and forced a smile. His eyes dart down to the carpet for a split second then he continues.  
     “I’m sure this is all very hard for him. Not having either of his biological parents at such a young age. I don’t want to leave him alone…” He just looks at me for a moment, with me staring back at him, before I nod slightly.  
     “Ja, he can stay with me.” I say awkwardly, not used to such serious topics. Claudius breaks into a real grin, and fake punches my arm, trying to take the tension out of his previous words.  
     “That’s my nephew. I’m going to make him a spot in your floor. I’m sure Ludwig wouldn’t mind your help getting into to bed.” He gives me a wide grin then sets off toward my room, while I head the other direction towards Ludwig’s. When I get there he is struggling to pull his head through his pajama top. He stops fighting when he hears me walk in and lets me undo the top button. I smile at him fondly, as he pushes his short blonde hairs away from his forehead.  
     “Uh.. Thanks, Bruder.” I grin at him as an unspoken ‘You’re Welcome.’ I help him crawl into bed before telling him good night, and heading back towards my own room. When I get there Claudius is telling ‘Goodnight’ to Roderich, who is just standing off to the side with the same emotionless expression from earlier, though now wearing royal purple pajamas. He nods to me before leaving the room and closing the door behind him, the defeated expression back on his face. I stand for a moment, waiting to see of Roderich is going to get into his little mountain of blankets and pillows, then realizing he isn’t, I flick the lights off. The room isn’t too dark because of the little night light I have in the corner, that Mom insisted I have after tripping and busting my nose one night, when I got up to go to the bathroom. I walk over to my bed and start climbing in, hearing Roderich getting into his, shortly after. ‘Oh good. That would have been awkward.’  
     “Uh.. Goodnight, Roderich.” I mumble out, not sure how comfortable it would be to share a room with someone I’ve never said a word to. As expected, he doesn’t respond.

* * *

 

     I open my eyes, not needing for them to adjust seeing as it is the middle of the night, and the room is still pretty dark. Once my mind catches up, I focus in on figuring out what woke me. Not noticing anything out of the ordinary, I turn over, then hear a sharp breath. I pause as I remember that Roderich is in the room as well. ‘Is he awake?’ I stay completely still for a moment before deciding it was nothing and trying to doze back to sleep. After a couple more minutes I hear him release a shuddering breath, causing me to wake back out of my half consciousness. I then hear what sounds like … sobbing? Muffled sobbing?  
     ‘Is… is he crying?’ The sobbing slowly progresses into quiet hiccups before his breathing evens out. Unable to go right back to sleep, I listen to him a while longer. He starts shifting around and mumbling in his sleep. This progresses into a full blown fit, before he wakes up with another sharp breath. He continues this pattern for a while longer, making me feel a mixture of annoyance and sympathy. Knowing that the annoyance will fade once I’ve had better sleep,I ignore my more violent thoughts and decide that: ‘Maybe, Roderich, really needs a friend right now.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This seemed longer before I put it up. The very first part of this was in third person, and the rest was first. It was something I had done by accident but when I went to fix it, I liked it and think it makes a nice beginning. I am mean so mean to poor Roderich, and with the plans I have things will get harder for him. And I am such a sucker for big-brother-Gil. I'm not sure when chapter 2 will be up, I'm already writing it, and know what I want to do with it, I'm just struggling to depict it well. 
> 
> If at any time you want to know how people are related, ages, grades, family trees... ect. just let me know! This extends to characters we see later as well.
> 
> So, see you then!


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Hey, boys. Roderich I was thinking we could head over to that museum now. Gilbert, do you want to go, too?" Thinking 'Why not?' I stand and nod rapidly. "When you’re done putting your toys away, meet us downstairs."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gosh, I had most of this finished a long time ago, but the ending part was so hard for me to write. I like embarrass myself when writing or something.
> 
> For some reason I'm unable to indent my paragraphs. Does anyone know how to fix that?

When I woke up this morning the blankets from Roderich’s makeshift bed were, although rather sloppily by my standards, folded and stacked beside my door.  The brunette was gone, so I proceeded with my morning routine of making my bed, before refolding the stack of blankets.   _ ‘I can just hear Mom telling me I have OCD, with that amused look on her face, like she always does.  Whatever OCD is..’ _

I then went down to the dining room, where Claudius was making a worried face at Roderich, who looked just as far away as yesterday.  Dad was sitting across from Claudius, drinking his coffee and looking through some paperwork.  Shortly after, Mom came in with Ludwig, who was about as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as his demeanor will allow. 

Here I am now, sitting at the table with everyone but Grandfather, eating breakfast and watching Roderich push his eggs around his plate.  Claudius keeps looking his way worriedly, but every time he notices me watching, he hides it behind a smile.  I look over at Ludwig, who is staring at Dad’s coffee mug with interest.  Mom notices and stifles a giggle under her breath, before reaching over and placing the mug in front of him.  Ludwig picks up the mug, looks it over thoroughly, then hesitantly takes a sip.  His eyebrows knit together and a frown washes over his face.  Most of the room erupts into laughter, and Ludwig starts to pout.  Mom leans over, kissing his face to reassure him, and the room eventually calms down again. 

“Hey, Roderich, there is a pretty big museum in town.  I was thinking we could go a little later..”  Claudius studies him, looking for any indication of change.  Roderich doesn’t respond, and Claudius lets out a defeated breath.  Feeling how awkward things just became, I finish the last few bites on my plate

“I’m going to go up to my room.”  I announce loudly, getting out of my seat.

“Roderich, why don’t you go play with Gilbert, okay?”  Claudius says hoping that time with someone his own age will pull Roderich out of his zombie-like state.  I stop and look back at Roderich waiting for him to follow me.  

We’ve been in my room for around an hour, maybe more.  I’ve been arranging my toy soldiers for battle.  Roderich has been more or less just sitting there.  I asked him if he wanted to help or if he wanted to play with something else but he pretty much just ignored me.   The door opens and Claudius steps in.

"Hey, boys.  Roderich I was thinking we could head over to that museum now.  Gilbert, do you want to go, too?"  Thinking  _ 'Why not?' _ I stand and nod rapidly.  "When you’re done putting your toys away, meet us downstairs."

 

* * *

 

Somehow I found myself in this situation.  After we got to the museum and Claudius paid our way in, we made our way about halfway through, before he got an important phone call.  After waving us forward and mouthing a ‘Be careful, I’ll catch up.’ me and Roderich made our way forward. 

Walking along, I keep glancing up at him, both to make sure we stay together and to see if his expression will change at all.  Claudius seemed pretty reliant on whether this would affect him or not.  Seeing some pretty awesome looking swords, I stop to study them better.  They’re old and beat up but still look pretty cool.  I glance back up and Roderich is gone.

“Roderich?”  He must have kept walking, so I speed forward to catch up.  Taking a turn in the dim hallway there is a small aquarium looking stretch and Roderich is stopped up ahead.  

“Hey, Roderich, we shouldn’t get spa-” He’s shaking. ‘ _ What the?’ _  I step around him then look him over.  He isn’t crying, so why is he shaking?  Glancing around, I don’t notice anything that could be the problem.  It doesn’t look like he’s hurt himself, and the only thing around is fish.

“Are you afraid of the fish?”  It almost looked as though he flinched, but not much.  More like a slight twitch.  That I could have imagined.  ‘ _ What should I do?’ _  I could wait for Claudius, but I have no idea how long it will take him, and that sounds kind of cruel.  Letting him stand here surrounded by something he’s afraid of for an indefinite amount of time.  Making up my mind, I grab his hand and try to coax him forward.  He doesn’t budge so I grab his other hand and urge him forward a little harder.

“Come on, Roderich.  Let’s get away from here.  Come on.  You have to move your feet.”  Finally pulling him hard enough to force him forward, we slowly make it away from the fish.  Once the aquarium is out of sight, I stop to survey the damage. 

“Hey.  We’re away from the fish.”  As if just realizing this himself, his shaking lessens.  Hesitating, he blinks his eyes then looks up at me.  His eyes focus, and he’s just staring at me.  Feeling the urge to fidget under this new attention, I let him go and take a step back.

“Um…”  Before I can get any words out, hurried footsteps make there way towards us and Claudius rushes around the corner.  He crouchs down beside Roderich and looks him over.

“I’m so sorry, Roderich.  If I had known there was an aquarium, we wouldn’t have come here…”  He rambles on taking in Roderich’s facial expressions.  Noticing that the boy is actually looking at him, he hesitates a little before asking “Are you okay?”

Roderich makes a small noise in his throat, before averting his eyes back to the floor.  Claudius looks torn between being relieved that he is okay, and surprised that he even answered.  Instead, he looks up at me with a very thankful expression.  After a couple moments of silence he picks Roderich up and we make our way out of the museum.

 

* * *

When bedtime came around, me and Ludwig made our way up to his bedroom to get him changed into his pajamas.  After helping Ludwig, I started on  my way back to my own room, but was met by Claudius in the hall.  

“I hope you don’t mind Roderich staying in your room again, tonight.  He still refuses to sleep with me.”  I simply nod, before saying my ‘Goodnight’s and finishing the trip to my room.  Stepping through the door, Roderich is already climbing his way into his nest of blankets.  

“Goodnight, Roderich.”  I state, then climb into my own bed.  It doesn’t take much to convince my body to sleep.  But soon my eyes shoot back open, and I struggle to see through bleary, half-asleep vision.  

“G-Gilbert?...” My focus shifts toward the barely audible whisper, to Roderich standing beside my bed.  He looks more distressed than usual and he won’t look me in the eye.  Not sure if I’m more startled by him standing by my bed at night or him actually talking, I opt for giving him a questioning look.  After last night and how expressive he is now, makes me wonder if he shuts down during the day, just to wake up in the middle of the night.  He kind of shifts from one foot to another, then meets my gaze.  A fresh pang of sympathy goes through me, when I see all the pain in his eyes.  

“..Ca-can I…” Roderich’s self consciousness gets the better of him and he breaks the eye contact.  “...get in the bed.. with you?”  His words trail  off into a quiet mumble and it takes a moment for me to register what he said.  I pause not sure if I should let him or not.   _ ‘What harm could it do?’ _

I nod and scoot over, giving him plenty of space.  He hesitates a moment, but slowly grabs the blanket.  He climbs in like any sudden movement is gonna make my bed come to life and swallow him whole.  Once he is settled in, I turn over and try to lay still.  Sleep takes much longer to achieve this time, but eventually creeps in, with me not knowing if the boy beside me will find some also.  But I really hope he does.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love little brother Germany. It is so fun to create moments like that.
> 
> This crazy short. I'm sorry. I'll try harder, I promise.


End file.
